The Republican journal., 1887-09-29
Declines to Join the Third Party.

THE REP; BLICAN PARTY THE BEST FRIEND OF
PROHIBITION.
The following communication. which we take
from the Boston journal, contains just as whole
some doctrine for Maine as for Massachusetts,:
Il saw by the report of the ProhbtOry eau
Gus that | was elected Il delegate to the State
Convention at Worcester. | am at loss to
know why was chosen Il delegate since have
never voted with or in any way sympathZed
with the ''thrd party" movement. | am as
earnest prohibitionist As any of them, think.
but have not believed their methods the best to
bring about the desired end. | have watched
the third party with good deal OF interest
since it started, and give its members credit for
honesty and >ingcness of purpose. Many of
them are my personal friends. with whom it
pains me to differ. but certainly do not think
they have acted wisely in antagonizing the Re-
publican party. which certainly in the North
has given whatever Of temperance legislation
we have ever had. In Maine, my native State,
for instance, the Republican party has in every
instance given all the law they have been asked
togire, and to-day they have not only ''Constitu-
tona prohibition but the most rigid statutes
for its enactment. witha Governor heartily and
actively in sympathy with its enforcement, and
yet such men as Hon. Neal Dow and other
third party men. like Mr.. Bean in the late eau
Gus, publicly announce as the platform of their
party. first. to Kill the Republican party. do
party. which here in the North is openly on
the side of the saloon and always and every
where openly opposed to prohibition. ! cannot
see how the cause of prohibition was helped in
the last national election by defeating Mr..
Blaine, a life long temperance man and one who
has Invariably thrown his influence in favor of
prohibition. and electing Mr.. Cleveland, who
certainly has never been even an abstaiEer
from the use of intoxicating beverages, and yet
the third party leaders, some of them dis
grunted Republican Office seekers. not only
We're satisfied with the way the election WENT
but claimed it as a third party victory. Indeed,
il was said. and so far as know never public
lN denied, that their Presidential nominee was
paid 800 IL lecture by the Democratic committee.
| could have wished that Gov. Amcs had urged
the adoption of the constitutional amend
ment in his inaugural, but when l see almost
the entire Republican party voting for it, and
nearly all the Democrats voting against it, and
realize that some of these Democrats would
never have been elected but for Republican
votes drawn off by the third party, and many
Republicans disatiectcd toward prohibition by
the action of the third party men, l cannot help
feeling it might have been carried if the third
party men had labored as hard to build up the
Republican party as they did to destroy it.
For myself, have voted with the Republic
can party since 1886, and with its glorious rec
ord and present noble men and the stand find
it taking everywhere for the protection of
labor, for a free ballot and a steady opposition
to the saloon interests, propose to stand by it,
and trust that through it, as in the past, every
material interest of our beloved country North
and South may be advanced. ii. }. WOODS"
Newton, Mass.